Showing posts with label Department of Homeland Security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Department of Homeland Security. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

This is How the DHS Seizes Your Guns

 [Originally posted at http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2013/02/robert-farago/this-is-how-the-dhs-seizes-your-guns/ ]


The Truth About Guns

 Department of Homeland Security logo
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently raided one of our readers: a kitchen table FFL dealer who does everything—everything—by the book. He has, however, consistently criticized the ATF for its unconstitutional regulations and long history of extra-legal activities. This is his story. Update to follow, after he consults with his lawyer . . .

First of all, forget about them coming to the door. They’ll intercept you on your way home from the Doctor’s office (for example), then one vehicle will come up behind you and two will block your way in front and turn on the flashing lights. They then jump out with ‘real’ assault rifles, point them at you and order your hands up, and exit the vehicle.  You, being a law abiding citizen, comply. At gunpoint, they order you to assume the position against your car, handcuffs you and frisk you, and you’re directed to get into the back seat. Then the lead agent gets into the driver seat and drives your car to your driveway. You sit there with cuffed hands behind you – bleeding.

As multiple vehicles close off the street and announce over a loudspeaker for all your neighbors to remain indoors (and are prohibited from leaving), the lead agent calls your house and directs your wife to come out of the house – and sit in the front seat. She does. Then the Homeland Security Special Tactical Unit, and the county sheriff Swat Team arrive, and drive two armored cars over the curb onto the lawn, as the “Jack Booted Thugs” with machine guns, helmets, boots, camo, etc. enter and search your house.

You see a Homeland Security Helocopter circling overhead. You are asked if you have any explosives (well, several cans of black powder….) and are there any booby traps in the house. They offer to let you read the search warrant, but your hands are cuffed behind your back. The agent in your car reads it very quickly.
After the Jack Booted Thugs are through, teams arrive to search and ransack the house. After about an hour, you are released and NO CHARGES are filed. You are required to stay beyond the perimeter as they set up tables in your yard and begin to paw through and process your worldly possessions.

You finally realize that they’re going to keep an eye on you, but you go to a neighbor to make phone calls – and find a good lawyer, who arrives on site, but is kept out by the agents. The agents search one of your cars and release it to you. Hours later, knowing there is nothing you can do on site, you leave and arrange a motel for the night.

Later, about 9PM (12 hours later), you phone your house and an agent answers, then advises you they’re about to leave. You drive to your house to see four Feds in your front yard, ready to leave. They tell you they don’t know where the house key is (which you gave them), nor where your cat is. They hand you a copy of the search warrant, but fail to provide a copy of the inventory (which they give you two days later).
You examine your house. Your computers are gone along with every extra & old hard drive, all data cds, floppies, thumb drives, compact flash drives, and other SD drives for your camera. But most shocking, is that your entire gun collection, which you spent a lifetime building, is gone.

Antique guns, airguns, non-guns. Virtually everything. One antique shotgun lies broken on the floor. Papers are strewn everywhere. Once they looked at it, and didn’t want it, they just tossed it aside. Piles of paper. The house is trashed – every room. Your clothing has been ransacked. Your wife’s clothing and underwear. You don’t even know what is missing. You look around, feel sick, lock up the house and go to the motel.
You return the next day to try to start to get things back in order, but realize it will take weeks.

Later, you find out that the affidavit which justified the search warrant is sealed – and you can’t even find out why they searched and seized. A few days later, the sworn affidavit is unsealed, and you find out that the agent lied repeatedly, told half-truths, speculated about possible violations, and related his ‘suspicions’ with no basis in fact – and that the search warrant is nothing more than a gigantic fishing expedition to see what they could find . . .

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Homeland Security Uses Local Police to Set Up Surveillance Buffer Zones

The New American



In order to sweeten the pot of federalization, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is giving gifts of expensive gadgets to local police forces.

Cops in North Jersey, for example, were showered with gifts from their would-be overseers. As reported by The Record:
Oradell, Emerson, Closter and Harrington Park police have car-mounted night-vision technology and video and recording equipment that can watch over the Oradell Reservoir and dam — and the hikers and anglers entering it. West Milford can do the same around the Newark watershed. Wayne police are scanning ... the license plates of vehicles outside the Willowbrook Mall, while East Rutherford officers patrol hotel parking lots near the Meadowlands and the Federal Reserve building off Route 17.

How is all this new technology being used? Who is being watched? Why are they being targeted for surveillance? Neither law enforcement nor federal agents are talking.-[Full Article]

Saturday, July 28, 2012

DHS Prepares for Civil Unrest as Obama Poised to Destroy 2nd Amendment

Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
July 28, 2012

Surveillance drones have a new mission. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) they will be used for “public safety”. Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the DHS, told a House Committee meeting on Homeland Security that the more than 30,000 drones that will be deployed into American skies are just arbitrarily watching out for US citizens.

Napolitano stated : “With respect to Science and Technology, that directorate, we do have a funded project, I think it’s in California, looking at drones that could be utilized to give us situational awareness in a large public safety [matter] or disaster, such as a forest fire, and how they could give us better information.”
Secretly, DHS have been taking bid for contractors who can install “aerial remote sensing” which uses light detection and ranging (LIDAR) that would be part of the unmanned drone missions within domestic US territory.

“DHS believes these airborne images are essential for homeland defense missions, such as planning for National Special Security Events (Super Bowls or a national political conventions come to mind); enhancing border, port and airport security; as well as performing critical infrastructure inventories and assessments” and has spent over $50 million to employ contractors, as well as processors for images and dissemination throughout the DHS.

Coincidentally, the Federal Protective Service (FPS) has been given the responsibility to protecting federally owned property while preparing for civilian led riots expected in the near future.
Part of the preparatory measures was an order of 150 sets of riot gear that was requested to be filled exponentially – within 15 days.-[Full Article]

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Homeland Security will track this article if I say electric pork cloud virus. Oops.

Venture Beat


Homeland Security will track this article if I say electric pork cloud virus. Oops.

The world now has access to a list of words and phrases that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security uses to monitor social networks and news article comments for terrorism and general threats against the country.

The list was part of a 39-page “2011 Analyst’s Desktop Binder” document that was released due to a Freedom of Information Act request by privacy watchdog organization Electronic Privacy Information Center. The list contains references to all the related governmental agencies, obvious references to threats (attack, nuclear threat, etc.) and then some pretty generic words like pork, cloud, electric, port, dock, and many others.
The overall report is interesting because it sheds some light on how these security agencies are trained to track potential threats online, but it does raise more than a few questions. For instance, why is Homeland Security tracking many vague terms, and what do they do with this information once its been identified as a possible threat?

The department claims that the practice is simply to monitor activity and not to track anti-U.S. comments made by individuals — a practice currently employed by the governments of Iran and Syria.-[Full Article]



Analyst Desktop Binder_REDACTED

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Readying for War? DHS Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Puts in Order for More Ammo

The Intelhub

Over the last month we have reported on the numerous and increasingly alarming purchases of hollow point ammuntion by the Department of Homeland Security.

While many have claimed that it is completely normal for domestic government agencies to order over 750 million rounds of .40 caliber hollow point ammo, the fact remains that these purchases have been anything but normal and signal a full scale militarization of various government agencies that could one day take on the American people. - [Full Article]

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Another Reason to Abolish the Dept. of Homeland Security | Power Line

www.powerlineblog.com
When you hear the words “Department of Homeland Security,” you probably think of those lovely postal workers uniformed officers who whisk you quickly and smoothly through airport security. But you’d be wrong. Turns out DHS also sees itself as a civil rights agency with a mandate to save the planet...

Friday, March 30, 2012

The Department Of Homeland Security Is Buying 450 Million New Bullets

Business Insider

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office is getting an "indefinite delivery" of an "indefinite quantity" of .40 caliber ammunition from defense contractor ATK.
U.S. agents will receive a maximum of 450 million rounds over five years, according to a press release on the deal. 

The high performance HST bullets are designed for law enforcement and ATK says they offer "optimum penetration for terminal performance."

This refers to the the bullet's hollow-point tip that passes through barriers and expands for a bigger impact without the rest of the bullet getting warped out of shape: "this bullet holds its jacket in the toughest conditions."

Friday, March 23, 2012

FBI & Homeland Security Caught Spying on Prepper Sites

FBI & Homeland Security Caught Spying on Prepper Sites FBI & Homeland Security Caught Spying on Prepper Sites
Visitors to the popular prepping website SurvivalBlog.com were advised today that the FBI was tracking a number of users through the use of tracking cookies. According to an examination of their server logs, SurvivalBlog claims that the FBI used Tracking cookies on a number of their readers.
Read More»

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The DHS Defends Globalism, Not America

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano - Wiki image
Brandon Smith, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

The Department Of Homeland Security is the very epitome of unnecessary bureaucracy. Its formation was predicated on the existence of terrorist threats, many of which the U.S. government and orbiting alphabet agencies either created through acts of war, or fabricated out of thin air. Its policies of centralization were sold to the public as necessary to prevent systemic “miscommunications” that never actually took place. Throughout our history, it has been a rare occasion indeed when an attack falls upon American infrastructure or interests that was not influenced, directly or indirectly, by the actions of agencies which were supposedly employed to prevent such events from ever occurring. Whether through ‘blowback’, or through ‘false flag’, frankly, most of the harm that comes to our nation is perpetrated by the guiding hand of our inexorably corrupt government.

Knowing that the DHS was established on false pretenses forces us to question the agency’s true intentions, especially when a professional fear-monger like Secretary Janet Napolitano announces that the globalization of the world economy falls within her jurisdiction:

Monday, January 16, 2012

TSA VIPR teams have a dream too

Examiner

January 15, 2012 The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's TSA Visible Intermodal Prevention Response (VIPR) teams have been reported in Spokane, WA for the holiday weekend, making security sweeps through STA buses and the downtown plaza where they will continue scaring Spokane Transit passengers through Monday.

Spokane Transit Authority’s communications officer, Molly Myers told a local news station that VIPR are conducting training exercises as a 'precautionary measure' for Martin Luther King Jr. Day...[Full Article]


Saturday, January 14, 2012

DHS To X-Ray Scan Americans At Border Checkpoints

Use of technology to be expanded despite warnings that devices cause cancer

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Friday, January 13, 2012

DHS To X Ray Scan Americans At Border Checkpoints portal01

The Department of Homeland Security is set to increase its deployment of of X-ray scanners, already in use on highways, at US border crossings, despite warnings from innumerable health authorities that the devices can cause cancer.

Despite airports moving away from dangerous naked body scanners that fire radiation into the body, damaging living tissue, rearranging chromosomes, and raising the risk of cancer, the DHS is expanding its use of X-ray scanning technology at border checkpoints.

With the technology already in place at places like the busy San Ysidro, California checkpoint, the DHS is planning to introduce the procedure at more locations, with Customs and Border Protection set to announce a new round of scanner purchases in February.

“A 63-page set of specifications (PDF), heavily redacted, obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center through the Freedom of Information Act, says the scanners must “be based on X-Ray or gamma technology,” which use potentially dangerous ionizing radiation at high energies, and “shall be capable of scanning cars, SUVs, motorcycles and busses,” reports CNet’s Declan McCullagh.

X-ray technology is being pursued at border checkpoints despite the availability of millimeter-wave machines that do the same job without emitting harmful radiation.

“Society will pay a huge price in cancer because of this,” John Sedat, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California at San Francisco, told CNET. Sedat has raised concerns about the health risks of X-ray scanners, and the European Commission in November prohibited their use in European airports.”

Presumably in an attempt to hide the true threat posed by the scanners, the DHS has named them “Low Energy Drive Through Portal Non-Intrusive Inspection Systems,” a term Peter Rez, a professor of physics at Arizona State University who has studied the technology, calls “highly misleading”.

“To call anything based on high energy X-rays ‘low energy’ is worse than 1984 doublespeak” because radiation emitted by the scanners “goes right through the person” sitting in a vehicle, he says. (High energy X-rays can penetrate not only human flesh, but steel plates that are multiple centimeters thick.)”

Indeed, numerous studies conducted by prestigious universities and health authorities, including Johns Hopkins, Columbia University, the University of California, and the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety, have warned that the devices will lead to an increase in cancers.

These warnings have been ignored by the DHS, mirroring the federal agency’s response to another controversy uncovered by EPIC, where “A large number of workers” at Boston-Logan Airport were found to “have been falling victim to cancer, strokes and heart disease,” having been tasked with operating X-ray scanning machines in the airport.

After TSA workers complained to bosses about how they were being kept in the dark over the dangers posed by the scanners, the DHS attempted to cover-up concerns and refused to issue workers with dosimeters.

After making assurances that the DHS would conduct further studies into the safety of X-ray scanning devices, TSA head John Pistole reneged on the promise in November.

Using portable X-ray scanning devices to carry out virtual strip-searches of the American people at TSA checkpoints is not just confined to airports or border crossings.

Documents obtained by Forbes describe Homeland Security plans to “mount backscatter x-ray scanners and video cameras on roving vans,” which would then allow the DHS to scan individuals on “public streets” at random.

Last year we reported on how the federal government has acquired hundreds of backscatter x-ray scanners mounted in vans that they are now using to randomly scan vehicles, passengers and homes in complete violation of the 4th amendment and with wanton disregard for any health consequences.

The devices are most frequently used to scan the vehicles of truck drivers who are forced to stop at internal checkpoints on highways.

Congress recently gave the green light on increased funding for a massive expansion of TSA checkpoints, with the federal agency already responsible for over 9,000 such checkpoints in the last year. The funds will pay for 12 additional VIPR teams (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response), who will be tasked with searching Americans on highways, at bus depots, train stations, sports stadiums, and numerous other public locations.

The extra money is being demanded despite the fact that there is “no proof that the roving viper teams have foiled any terrorist plots or thwarted any major threat to public safety,” according to an L.A. Times report.

*********************

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.


Homeland Security Is Reading and Recording Every Keystroke

The New American

With so many of our most essential liberties under attack from the oligarchy on the Potomac, it is little wonder that the freedom of the press and speech are next on the government guillotine.
The Department of Homeland Security’s National Operations Center (NOC) released its Publicly Available Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness Initiative last year and in that report the intelligence-gathering arm of the DHS, the Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPS) gives itself permission to “gather, store, analyze, and disseminate” data on millions of users of social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) and business networking sites (Linkedin).
Specifically, the Initiative sets out the plan and purpose behind the DHS’s collection of personal information from news anchors, journalists, reporters, or anyone else who posts articles, comments, or other information to many popular web outlets. The report defines the target audience as anyone who may use “traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed.”
Journalists and bloggers need not worry, however. DHS promises that it will not routinely gather and use Personally Identifiable Information (PII). From the abstract of the Initiative:
While this Initiative is not designed to actively collect Personally Identifiable Information (PII), OPS is conducting this update to the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) because this initiative may now collect and disseminate PII for certain narrowly tailored categories. For example, in the event of an in extremis situation involving potential life and death, OPS will share certain PII with the responding authority in order for them to take the necessary actions to save a life, such as name and location of a person calling for help buried under rubble, or hiding in a hotel room when the hotel is under attack by terrorists.
In other words, the government promises that all the personal electronic data that it monitors and records will only be used in “narrowly tailored” circumstances, saving a life, for example. There is no requirement that the data be used only in those instances, but there is a promise that it will be.
This unconstitutional, unwarranted search of private information is designed by DHS “to provide situational awareness and establish a common operating picture” of target audiences...[Full Article]

Homeland Security watches Twitter, social media

(Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's command center routinely monitors dozens of popular websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, WikiLeaks and news and gossip sites including the Huffington Post and Drudge Report, according to a government document.

A "privacy compliance review" issued by DHS last November says that since at least June 2010, its national operations center has been operating a "Social Networking/Media Capability" which involves regular monitoring of "publicly available online forums, blogs, public websites and message boards."

The purpose of the monitoring, says the government document, is to "collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture."...[Full Article]

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Homeland Security Is Monitoring The Drudge Report, The New York Times

The Atlantic Wire


Adam Clark Estes

Jan 11, 2012

It's unclear exactly why, but the Department of Homeland has been operating a "Social Networking/Media Capability" program to monitor the top blogs, forums and social networks online for at least the past 18 months. Based on a privacy compliance review from last November recently obtained by Reuters, the purpose of the project is to "collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture." Whatever that means. Either way, the list of sites reported by Reuters reveals in a Wednesday afternoon exclusive is pretty intriguing...[Full Article]

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

USA: Homeland Security monitors journalists

Baltic Review
Freedom of speech might allow journalists to get away with a lot in America, but the Department of Homeland Security is on the ready to make sure that the government is keeping dibs on who is saying what
US Dept. of Homeland Security

US Dept. of Homeland Security

Under the National Operations Center (NOC)’s Media Monitoring Initiative that came out of DHS headquarters in November, Washington has the written permission to retain data on users of social media and online networking platforms.

Specifically, the DHS announced the NCO and its Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPS) can collect personal information from news anchors, journalists, reporters or anyone who may use “traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed.”

According to the Department of Homeland Security’s own definition of personal identifiable information, or PII, such data could consist of any intellect “that permits the identity of an individual to be directly or indirectly inferred, including any information which is linked or linkable to that individual.” Previously established guidelines within the administration say that data could only be collected under authorization set forth by written code, but the new provisions in the NOC’s write-up means that any reporter, whether someone along the lines of Walter Cronkite or a budding blogger, can be victimized by the agency...[Full Article]

Monday, January 9, 2012

Feds find failures in Cook Co. homeland security project

Chicago Sun-Times

By Carol Marin and Don Moseley
January 8, 2012 9:58PM

Project Shield was supposed to make citizens safer. But in the end, the $45-million Homeland Security program more resembled a disaster, wasting taxpayers’ dollars and failing to make a single citizen more secure.

The failed Cook County initiative was replete with equipment that failed to work, missing records and untrained first responders according to a report by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The report, to be released Monday but obtained by The Sun-Times and NBC5 News, found “millions of tax dollars may have been wasted.”

Under Project Shield, two police squad cars in all 128 Cook County suburbs were to be fitted with cameras capable of feeding live video to a central command. In addition, fixed mounted cameras were to be installed to feed pictures in case of a terrorist attack or emergency in Cook County.

A six-month investigation by the IG found “equipment was not working, was removed, or could not be properly operated.”

Investigators visited 15 municipalities between January and June last year and found “missing records, improper procurement practices, unallowable costs and unaccountable inventory items.”...[Full Article]

Attract Government Spies By Tweeting These Words

Gawker

By Ryan Tate
Dec 27, 2011 6:28 PM

The Department of Homeland Security makes fake users on Twitter and Facebook with which to follow suspicious people. But what if you're not shifty enough to get your own government e-stalker? No problem: Just tweet "My cow collapsed, and now there's a human to animal infection outbreak among illegal immigrants."

That should bring heaps of DHS scrutiny, judging from a fresh lawsuit seeking access to the agency's data. In the suit, the privacy advocates at Electronic Privacy Information Center said DHS is monitoring social networks, blogs and message boards for users saying terms like "human to animal," "collapse," "infection," "outbreak," and "illegal immigrants." If you use these words and phrases, the government might follow you, record your activity, and share information about you with local, state, federal, and foreign governments. Since EPIC has thus far received no cooperation from the government and is suing for access, it's not clear how the nonprofit compiled its list of red-flag keywords. Hopefully its research did not involve human to animal contact, smuggling things through airport security, or bribing government employees!

Apparently, the Government Spies On People Who Tweet Certain Key Words



Complex.com

Apparently, the Government Spies On People Who Tweet Certain Key Words

Want the government to notice you? Well, according to privacy advocates at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, it's a pretty simple feat! The Department of Homeland Security monitors social networks, creating fake accounts on sites like Facebook and Twitter to follow people who post statuses that include certain flagged words.

So, the next time someone random friend requests you, just think, it could be the federal government!

The so-called flagged words are the following: "human to animal," "collapse," "infection," "outbreak," and "illegal immigrants." The EPIC says that using any of the following words could attract someone from the DHS to follow you, track your activity, monitor everything you post, and report it all to local, state, federal, and even foreign governments. According to Gawker, it's not too clear how the EPIC compiled its list of words, but they're suing the government to seek access to the data that the DHS has been compiling.

So if you want all those guys in Washington to know what you did last weekend, you know what to tweet.

Privacy Advocates Sue DHS for Big Bro Fake 'Friends' Monitoring Social Media

Privacy advocates are suing DHS for 'covert' social networking surveillance on Facebook and Twitter. EPIC's FOIA lawsuit is a result of Homeland Security refusing to turn over details about Big Brother setting up fake accounts to 'friend' you and better monitor your social media activities.


By Ms. Smith on Thu, 12/22/11 - 12:28pm.

Yes, Virginia, Big Brother is watching you in social media and storing those "naughty" tweets, posts and comments. After those hot keyword terms put you on the naughty list, unlike Santa's list, it's not a redo in a year . . . that info will be stored for five years. The EFF previously warned Big Brother wants to be your online buddy on social networking sites. Then the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asking Homeland Security for more details about the agency's plans to setup fake profiles and monitor social media users; but when no documents were produced, EPIC is now suing DHS over 'covert surveillance on Facebook and Twitter.'

Hackers belonging to Anonymous kindly shared with the public such "chumming and baiting" tactics as were disclosed in Aaron Barr's leaked emails.Those sock puppet accounts will try to befriend you, monitor for specific NOC terms, and then collect your PII (personally identifiable information) which will be stored for five years. Many users have a nasty habit of over-sharing on social media even though all that personal or sensitive information is potential fodder for social engineers. EPIC's lawsuit [PDF] against DHS states, "Social media users have no reason to believe that the Department of Homeland Security is tracking their every post." The DHS program plans to share this PII by "email and telephone" with "federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, foreign, or international government partners."

EPIC wrote, "DHS has stated that it will routinely monitor the public postings of users on Twitter and Facebook. The agency plans to create fictitious user accounts and scan posts of users for key terms. User data will be stored for five years and shared with other government agencies. The legal authority for the DHS program remains unclear."

A PR spokesperson from the Pentagon politely objected to the suggestion that ethics disappear behind closed doors, dirty deeds done in the dark when dirty weapons like sock puppet propaganda might be deployed against the American people who are supposed to be free to express themselves. Such armies of fake social media "friends" promoting propaganda was allegedly not being used against We the American People. But the devil is in the details of DHS monitoring keywords and social media when Big Bro's sock puppet accounts want to be your buddy on social networking sites...[Full Article]

Sunday, January 8, 2012



Global Research, January 6, 2012

“As a nation, we will do everything in our power to protect our country. As Americans, we will never give in to fear or division. We will be guided by our hopes, our unity, and our deeply held values. That’s who we are as Americans … And we will continue to do everything that we can to keep America safe in the new year and beyond.” - Barrack Obama’s opening address for the Department of Homeland Security 2011 Budget Report

The Orwellian overtones could not be more ominous. Contrary to Obama’s moral decree, America is already ten years into its latest social experiment – making fear and division its premier business.

One of the true hallmarks of any successful police state is a compulsory national ID. On this score, Janet Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security has officially taken up challenge of making sure that no American will be left without one. Tennessee provided the launchpad for this new DHS police state project, but like anything with the DHS, it’s hard to actually pinpoint whose banner it is actually run under.

Originally conceived under the Bush Administration in November 2002, supposedly in response to the attacks of September 11, 2011 and the dubious anthrax attacks (both these events have not been proven to be carried out by foreign agents), the DHS along with its stepchild the TSA, have become a bottomless pit of federal and grant money, who’s only achievement to date has been to instigate increased control and monitoring of the US domestic population – bullying its way through the legislative branch at the same time as the USA PATRIOT Act.

The new DHS national ID card program was officially rolled out this week in the state of Tennessee. From January 1st, 2012, ID cards are longer optional, they are the law. The new state law requires that all Tennessee citizens must present a federal or state-issued photo ID in order to vote at the polls. The law also requires the DHS to issue photo IDs for voting purposes – at no charge. Residents appear to have given in without any serious fight, giving a new dimension to the state’s lofty moniker as a “Volunteer State”.

The program was quietly ushered in earlier in 2011, as reported today by Tennessee journal Clarksville Online:...[Full Article]